Ansan Valley Rock Festival

After my quick trip to America, I didn’t have much time to recuperate before jumping into another trip. I got home on Tuesday night (well more like Wednesday morning) and had to go to work within hours. Luckily, the students were on “vacation”, so I didn’t have to teach… But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have rather had been in my own bed. Though I did catch some shut eye on my desk.

I didn’t have much time before I had to be unpacked, do the laundry, then repack because I was taking the day off Friday to go to my first ever music festival. So that Friday morning, I met up with Papa Ninja, aka Adam, and headed for Seoul where we would transfer to a shuttle bus that would take us directly to Ansan. 

Ready to roll!

Since we would be camping at this music festival, and it would be hot, and it would be raining, it didn’t take much to pack. Looking back though, there would be things I would definitely do differently. Like not camp. HAHA. When we got there, Adam and I had to grab 2 lanterns, 4 sleeping mats and 6 sleeping bags. Luckily, the site had some sort of mix up and gave us pre-pitched tents, so we didn’t have to deal with setting them up on our own, which we definitely would’ve had trouble doing. We got lucky.

Our tent and supplies

Then we headed into the festival site where Roy Kim, a new Korean singer that has the sound of Jason Mraz and John Mayer (to me), was scheduled to begin. He was the entire reason for coming earlier than everyone else, and it was totally worth it. I love his sound, though Adam said he needed much more alcohol to get through his set. We then walked around the grounds, bought some food and some souvenirs. The festivals here are so much different than in America (well, not that I’ve ever been to any festivals in America, but I can only imagine). The food is decent priced, the beer was cheap, and the souvenirs weren’t that bad either.

Roy Kim

Adam and I

One HUGE difference was the way the entire festival was set up. In Korea, things seem to really focus on electronics. Girls would be waiting in the bathroom with their phones plugged in. There were 2 types of charging stations, where you had to fill out an entry form for a contest or something, then you would leave your phone with them for hours to be charged for 15-30 minutes. Though I do have to say, I got sucked into the “I need my phone charged” craze several times.

Another thing that astounded me was the fact that these Korean girls were wearing entirely too short of skirts, and tons of them had heels on! High heels! IN THE MUD! Crazy Korean girls and their image. One of the great things about this festival though were the bathrooms. They had these little trailers that had 2 doors each, then inside each door there were 4 stalls and a vanity. The most amazing thing, they pretty much always had toilet paper, were well kept, AND they had multiple trailers that were female only restrooms. Multiple times I laughed to myself because the girls’ rooms usually only had a wait of 1-2 people, but the men’s rooms always had lines of 10-15 people. It was a great change. Though, the line for the (cold) showers in the mornings weren’t always the most fun thing (though you learn to wake up extra early), at least there WERE showers.

But the great part was the music. There was honestly GREAT music at this festival. And I had forgotten how much I love live music. And the fact that I got to see Vampire Weekend, FUN., Stereophonics, Roy Kim, and Yellowcard was great. And I have to say, the one headliner, Skrillex, that I didn’t anticipate enjoying at all was probably one of my favorite sets of the entire weekend. He is a great entertainer and looks like he is just having a ton of fun.

Stereophonics

Skrillex

FUN.

The festival was supposed to be great fun, which it was. But it would’ve been a lot more fun if we had gone on a weekend that it wasn’t pouring down rain the entire time. The music was great, though I did realize that some music just isn’t for me. The Ansan Valley Rock Festival was my first ever music festival, but I have to say it might be my last. It was great fun, don’t get me wrong, but just not my scene. Maybe I’m getting old. 

Last day- a complete mess

 After another long, and grueling trip home from Ansan I finally arrived home at 5:30 in the morning. Just enough time to shower, take a quick nap and head to work! Next stop- JEJU!